Now, Lenovo is looking to expand its presence in your living room with the 27" IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC. The Horizon can lay on a flat surface (like a table or floor) where multiple users can gather around and interact with the touch interface.

Horizon supports simultaneous 10-finger touch, and even comes with a few cool peripherals to use including E-dice for card-based games and four joysticks (Lenovo currently has backing from Electronic Arts and Ubisoft for games with Horizon support).

When not being used in table mode, the Horizon can easily convert into a regular 27" desktop PC (1920x1080 resolution).

The Horizon runs Windows 8 Pro, packs in a third-generation Intel Core i7 processor, up to a NVIDIA GeForce GT 620M graphics card with 1GB of memory, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, and up to a 1TB HDD. A 64GB SSD can be optionally added. Other features include stereo speakers with Dolby Home Theater v4, Bluetooth and 802.11n, 720p webcam, 6-in-1 media reader, and USB 3.0 support.

Thankfully, the Horizon includes an integrated battery so that families can gather around and interact with the device and not trip over wires. However, don't expect to go cordless for too long -- the integrated battery is only good for a maximum of two hours before you have to go scrambling to find the power cord.

“We've seen technology shifts across the four screens, from the desktop to the laptop, tablet and smartphone, and yet, while people have more computing power than ever before, there is still room for technologies like Horizon that bring people together," said Peter Hortensius, president, Product Group, Lenovo. "Horizon makes personal computing interpersonal computing with shared, collaborative experiences among several people,”

Lenovo's Horizon Table PC will not launch until early summer, and will feature a price tag starting at $1,699.

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Your information is incorrect. Clover Trail tablets, aside from not really being available yet (Asus and Lenovo still don't have release dates on theirs), have prices that start at around $650. Higher price than the Surface RT or the iPad, and far higher than the iPad Mini or the numerous Android tablets out there.

But forget about ARM based tablets, the important point is that it is more expensive than the $300-$400 netbooks and econoboxes that have driven Windows sales over the last couple years. I agree that the hardware is cool, but that doesn't matter when people like the post I responded to and many others are just going to complain about the price. All I see on boards are price complaints for anything that costs more than a Nexus 7, and its gonna hurt vendors.

Like the article said: "Getting people to pay more for a product they were previously getting inexpensively is a tough one."

This isn't about "love" or "hate", its pure numbers. Clover Trail tablets may be capable but the price doesn't help. On a side note, the WinRT app market not a plus right now. I'm running Windows 8 on my laptop and the WinRT store is anemic, much lower quality than what is on iOS. Its still all about Steam and Battlenet on Windows for me, and I sure as hell aren't playing Starcraft 2 or DOTA with a touchscreen...

I do think it is funny that quotes I took from one of the most pro-Microsoft blogs out there provoked such a response. Even funnier is that I'm on the same side as most of you, but I bring up the fact that many people complain about the additional price of touchscreen hardware because they've been conditioned to buy cheaper goods and people freak out.

In the end I WANT this cool hardware to sell, it encourages even better hardware for everyone, but I worry that the race to the bottom over the last few years is going to hurt that.

What? $650? You don't know sh1t about the subject. Let me tell you about REAL world, ok? First, Clover Trail tablets start from $580 on newegg, second, iPad with less storage is more expensive, third, iPad games still suck if you compare them with heavy hitters on RT, like Vendetta Online, fourth, those Clover Trail tablets have same or better battery life compared to iPad, while providing better HD video viewing experience due to proper aspect ratio, especially on Surface. I compare those new Win 8 and Win RT tablets with iPad all the time because a lot of people ask me for recommendation when buying new hardware. After watching how tablets developed past couple of years I understood that tablets are where the money is, not the netbooks. MS is doing the right thing chasing high profit markets and leaving zero profit markets to Google, after all they make money selling stuff while Google can only compete on price, not on quality. Dropping netbook is the right thing, financially wise. Let Google have this market, because Google does not need any profit selling quality hardware, they are better off selling cheap crap.

The few available ones I've found have been Acer's at $650 with the keyboard dock and HP's Envy x2 for $850, $300 more than most tablets or low-end notebooks.

Also, Vendetta Online is a third-rate EVE Online, I've played it. Give me a break, it isn't even up to snuff with Sentinel 3 or Galaxy On Fire 2, let alone better iOS games like Autumn Dynasty or Battle Of The Bulge (current fave). The selection and quality of iOS games are absolutely second to none in touchscreen mobile, which makes sense given how many developers it has. You're telling me that VO is better than what Epic, Crytek, or numerous others like PlayDek or Days Of Wonder are releasing? Ok.

And if we're playing normal Windows games then I'd rather do it on something beefier than a Clover Trail. I'll stick with my mobile i7 for that.

The important point though, which you keep on missing, is that Clover Trail tablets won't sell as well as the "cheap crap" (as you like to call it) simply because the same customers Microsoft and OEMs have targeted for years are used to paying less. Now they're being asked to spend more for 10" touchscreen hardware.

If someone has a choice between a Clover Trail tablet or a 15" laptop (low quality as it may be) that only costs $500, both running Windows 8 , what do you most are going to buy?

Tablet sales won't improve until prices for touchscreen and mobile components are driven down over time, and this is only because a segment of customers hate the (IMO completely justified) price of those products. Proof will be in sales numbers and all the forum complaints of high pricing.

And I don't think your comparison of RTS and other genres versus VO which is space sim is anywhere near correct. There's still VO for RT and no VO for iOS. GoF 2 kinda compensates for that, I agree, but still... having decent tablet games for Android and RT but NOT iOS is telling.

quote: the same customers Microsoft and OEMs have targeted for years are used to paying less

These customers defect to Google en masse, why chase them? Let Google have the poor non-paying customers who will watch ads, while MS has a slice of rich customers formerly belonging to Apple. More profit to MS this way.

quote: If someone has a choice between a Clover Trail tablet or a 15" laptop that only costs $500, both running Windows 8, what do you think most are going to buy?

Big heavy laptop with 3 hours of battery life of small light tablet with 9 hour of battery life? That's a tough choice LOL. Of course most people would go for a tablet, since it's just as good for office/mail/web/video/casual gaming as a heavier laptop.

quote: Tablet sales won't improve until prices for touchscreen and mobile components are driven down over time

iPhone sales did't improve either until prices for them were driven from $600 down to $200 over time. Same for iPad which started to sell better when they made crappier/cheaper mini version. So what's your point then? Are you just captain obvious or what? You state obvious things everybody here would agree with.

quote: These customers defect to Google en masse, why chase them? Let Google have the poor non-paying customers who will watch ads, while MS has a slice of rich customers formerly belonging to Apple. More profit to MS this way.

No, it means less profit to MS this way. Moving Windows licenses is the main thing that matters to them, not selling fewer tablets. If they give the low end away to Google then they're basically throwing away the hardware platform that got Windows 7 sales going at a staggering 20 million units per month.

Don't you get it? This isn't rocket science.

quote: Big heavy laptop with 3 hours of battery life of small light tablet with 9 hour of battery life? That's a tough choice LOL. Of course most people would go for a tablet, since it's just as good for office/mail/web/video/casual gaming as a heavier laptop.

The tablet also costs more. This isn't a userbase that is concerned with quality, if they did then low cost laptops and netbooks wouldn't have sold well in the first place.

People in shops and all over user forums complain about tablet prices while bragging about some garbage $400 notebook they bought that can "do more" because it has a bad keyboard and a "real" OS. This isn't changing anytime soon, not when so many customers at the low end have been trained to know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

quote: Same for iPad which started to sell better when they made crappier/cheaper mini version.

The iPad sold over 100 million units as of last year. It is as big a consumer electronics blockbuster as can be expected. Bigger than consoles and bigger/more profitable than the PC market. The iPad mini is gravy.